Names Are Not Important
by Short Moose
Summary: After King left, only Zoe and I remained. We made due. But King was wrong: the legend doesn't end with Blade; it ends with me. Don't own nothing Short Moose
1. Chapter 1

The floor was cold and damp. Just like it was yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before three months ago. I hate two things in this world. Well, more like one, but they're sort of related. One, I hate Novak Haben. That god damned son of a bitch bit me, branded me, and left me in this room. And Two, I hate vampires. With a fucking passion. That's why I kill them. Or at least I used to, before I was locked up. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the large metal door opening, a whimper from a man, and the door closing.

The man continued to make noises that were disturbing my concentration, so I said to him, "Get into the farthest fucking corner, and stay there." He didn't know that I was there, and he jumped and yelped when he heard me. In anger I jumped to my feet, and went as far as the chains would let me to shout at him, "Get away from me! Go into the farthest fucking corner, stay there, and SHUT UP!"

He was so scared that he practically ran into the corner and curled up into a fetal position. I went back into my corner, laid down, and brought my knees to my chest, and I started over. "Fidem mayam obligo, vexillo civitatium, americae foederitarum, et rei publicae, pro qua stat, uni nationi, deo ducente, non dividendae, cum libertate, iustitia que, pro omnibus." I whispered in Latin. I had to keep my mind off of the man, otherwise, I knew I was going to bite him. So, I started over. And after I finished, I did it again. And again, and again. I did it for hours, until I heard the door open again.

"Miss Anita, Mr. Haben requires your presence." Said a small portly man.

"Tell him to go fuck a poodle. I'm not interested." I replied with hostility.

"Ma'am, he orders for you to join him. He says that it will be for your benefit."

I sighed, "Fine. But while I'm gone, you best make sure that the man in the corner gets out of here bite free, or I will make sure that you will never see darkness again. Do I make myself clear?" he nodded. "Good. Now unlock me." He came over to the middle of the room, and unlocked the cuffs on my wrists. Just as I was about to leave the room, I turned back to the man and said, "Remember, not a bite." Every time he called for me, he was always in the same room: Up the stairs, first on the left. And that's where I went. I didn't wait for his secretary lady to buzz me in, I just busted in. "What do you want?"

"Actually, the question is, 'what do _you_ want'?" he asked, sitting behind his desk, while behind him was a wall full of monitors, one for each room.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I will grant you three wishes. The only rule, is that you can't wish to leave."

"What, are you a genie now, Novak?" I stared at him for a second. "What's the catch?"

"No catch. I just want you to be more comfortable." He sent me a smile that I would never again return.

I burnt holes into his head before I said, "I want you to leave me alone. Completely. No more trying to feed me humans. Or any other living mammal."

"Done. And your second?"

"Let me go at night." I didn't hesitate.

"No. I can't do that."

"What I mean, is let me come out of the dungeon. You know, go to the other rooms of the building, like the kitchen so I can get some water so I don't actually die." I flooded sarcasm.

"Fine. And three?"

I glanced up at the monitor that looked over my room, and was very upset at what I saw. "Get yourself a new whipping boy." I then turned and stalked out. He twisted around to see that the portly man was feeding on the man that he gave me. Maybe a minute later, I came strolling into the view on the monitor, and I grabbed the portly man off of the now dead man, and I dragged him into the hallway. Novak continued to watch where I was taking him through the hallway monitor, and he just scoffed when he saw that when I got to the end on the hallway, I opened the door that leads to the outside, And I tossed him outside to where the sun was blazing bright. I smiled in the shadows of the door when I heard him screaming in pain.

When I was sure that the portly man was dead, I went back to my room, and dragged the dead man out and into the hallway. After I came back in, I locked myself back in the chains. For who knows what I would've done if I stopped concentrating for a minute and remembered the man just in the hall. I probably would have mutilated him, only because I haven't had anyone else's blood since I turned. The only blood I have had, would be from biting my lip. I continued my mantra again. I don't know, but for some reason, Latin seemed to calm me down. And right now, I was so calm, that I was almost asleep. But of course, when something good starts to happen, something else always comes around and ruins it, and right now was no different. For I had been disturbed by a ruckus in the hallway. And, it caught my attention when I started to hear screams of pain. I picked my head up and winced when someone opened my door and the light from the hallway filled my dark room. All I could see, was that the person that entered my doorway was tall.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Latin Pronunciation:

Fidem - Feedem -;- Mayam - Mayam

Obligo - Obleego -;- Vexillo - Wexillo

Civitatium - Keeweetateeum -;- Americae - Americy (by)

Foederatarum - Foderatarum -;- Et Rei - Et Rayee

Publicae - Poohblicy (by) -;- Pro Qua Stat - Pro Kwa Stat

Uni - Oonee -;- Nationi - Nateeonee

Deo - Dayo -;- Ducente - Dekentay

Dicidendae - Diwidendie -;- Cum Libertate - Coom Libertatay

Iustitia Que - Youstiteea Kway -;- Pro Omnibus - Pro Omneebus


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you a slayer?" I said, my throat dry.

"What do you think?" The man said.

"Will you, please, kill me?" I pleaded to him. "I can't live like this."

"What's your name?"

"Anita."

"Anita, what?"

"My last name is not important." I growled at him.

He turned his head left and shouted, "Z! Better come here."

Another figure, this time a girl, came into view. "Who are you?"

"Anita." I answered again, this time not as hostile.

"Prove it." She said, taking a glance at the man next to her.

"I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake I must have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place. In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark ways led it from under great round arches, it perhaps seemed bigger than it really is. I have not yet been able to see it by daylight." I recited as though I had said it a million times.

I couldn't tell, but I think she smiled, "Glad to see nothings changed, Moose."

"Same here, Zoe." she started to come over, but I back away as far as I could, "Stay away. It's not safe."

"They turned her," he whispered to Zoe.

"You think?" She turned to him, but then turned back to me. "I trust you." she then extended her had out towards me.

I knew Zoe, and I knew that she wouldn't reach out to someone dangerous, like a vampire, unless she really trusted them. "I'd get up, but, I can't get past my knees." I said to her, shaking my hands and making the chains rattle.

Zoe then took out one of her guns from it's holster, "Turn your head." I did as I was told, and then heard two shots, one for each chain.

I looked down, gaped, and held up my wrists to show her, "You were awfully close." I said, meaning how the only part that was left connected to the thick wrist band, was one link.

"Common," she started, helping me up. "We gotta get you outta here before sunrise-"

"Wait, I can't go yet. I have to get something." I headed towards the door, only to be stopped by that guy that hasn't moved since Zoe came. "Excuse me." I showed a little attitude.

"What do you have to get? I'll get it." Zoe said, coming to stand beside me.

"It's personal, Zoe. I have to get it." I could smell her blood from a cut she had on her cheek. And it smelled so good-NO! No. I'm better than that.

"What is it?" The man asked me, in a stern voice.

"My necklace."

"Your necklace." The man couldn't believe that I made such a deal about a necklace.

"Yeah, it's kind of important to me. And I would appreciate it, if you didn't make fun of it." I was angry at him, and I had a reason to be. It was my necklace; my dad gave it to me before he died.

"He took your necklace," Zoe turned to me. She actually seemed kind of concerned.

"Yeah."

"The one that your da-"

"Yeah," I interrupted her.

She couldn't believe it, "Oh, bitch gonna die. That mother fucker doesn't know what he just got himself into." she then turned from me to the man. "Justin, I need you to get her out of here. I'll meet up with you."

"No. Let me get it." I interrupted her, yet again. "I know where it is."

"No, no, no, it's too dangerous for you. You don't have anything to protect yourself with." She was taking on that mother role...again.

"Give me a gun, and I will meet you guys outside in ten minutes tops, I promise."

We stared at each other for a minute before she said, "Justin, give her your seven shot."

"Boss, I don't think-"

She gave him the sternest look, "Give her your seven shot." With hesitation, he took out the gun from the right holster of his belt and handed it to me. She moved from his eyes to mine, "Front, ten minutes."

I nodded, "Ten minutes." She nodded back and moved out, Justin following her.

I took a deep breath and stole out the door, and down the hallway to the right. I knew exactly where my necklace was: it was in Novak's personal office. Of course I couldn't let Zoe go to him, Lord only knows what he would've done to her had she let her guard down for a second. But I know Novak, and he loves me. He wouldn't dare hurt me. And so I went up the familiar way to his office, and, just like I always wanted, kicked the fucking door in. It felt so good to finally do what I had wanted to do since I had been imprisoned. I startled him, which is exactly what I wanted, "What the-"

"Give it to me!" I shouted, pulling the gun on him, slowly walking up to him and putting it to his head.

"Give what?" he acted calm, but I knew he was scared. He had no idea what this gun was filled with.

"The necklace! Give it to me." I said harsher.

"Fine, take it. It's just a worthless piece of metal," he took it off his own neck, and held it out to me.

"It might be worthless to you. But you have no idea what it represents." I snatched it, and walked out, completely unharmed, yet still not turning my back on him, as well as keeping the gun on him.

"I'll find you, you know!" he called to me. "I'll always find you! No matter where you go, I'll come for you." his voice echoed throughout the building, and it went inside my head, and bounced off the walls there. I shook it off, and started for my journey out. I didn't have to go far before I met a vamp. She was one of Novak's whores. She started throwing darts at me, I dodged most of them. Just one nicked me one the side under one of my arms. I got fed up with her, and shot her like it was natural to me. And it was. It felt good getting back to the one thing I was good at. I made my way down to the first floor without anymore trouble. But, when I came close to the door, I got ambushed by a large group of vampires that looked like they hadn't fed in a while. I started to punch and kick at anything that came close to my body. They had knives and chains and they started to poke at and whip me. That is, until someone came to my rescue.

"BACK...OFF!" I heard Justin yell, whilst shooting everyone in sight. Every vampire around me turned into ash. He came up to me, his breathing slightly above normal, "You can take care of yourself, huh?" he smiled, but only slightly.

I started to smile back, but this pain just shot through my entire body. I yelled out in pain, and grabbed my side, feeling thick red liquid. I looked at my blood soaked hand, and I thought, 'Maybe that nick was worse than expected.' "Fidem, mayam, obligo." I started to recite, trying to keep my mind off practically sucking myself dry.

"Hey, Zoe! She's hurt!" I heard him cry. I was loosing a lot of blood, and I began to black out, until everything was gone. Justin kneeled down at my side, and felt my pulse. "Z! We're losing her!" Zoe came rushing in, and put pressure on my side.

"We've got to get her back as soon as possible. If we don't, she's gonna die. Whether from blood loss, or sunlight." Justin then put one hand on my back, and one under my knees, and picked me up.

He carried me into a Denali that was waiting for Zoe and him around the corner. He laid me down in the back seat, keeping pressure on my wound, and finally looking at my face since our little tussle back in the dungeon. He then looked at my hand, and saw a familiar necklace clenched in it: on a metal chain, was a small, square, silver colored charm with an even smaller black cross in the middle of it. 'So,' he thought. 'That's who you are.'


	3. Chapter 3

"_Daddy! One more story! PLEEEEASE!" I begged, as my dad tucked me in._

"_No, Honey. It's time for bed." He said gently, fluffing my pillow. He kissed my forehead and went to my door and shut the light off. _

"_Daddy?" he turned back to me. "Can I ask you a question?"_

"_Of course honey." he came and sat back down next to me. "Shoot."_

"_Would you still love me if I turned into one of _them_?" I said quietly, ashamed of even asking._

_He sadly smiled at me, "Sweetheart, I will always love you. No matter what. Okay?" he kissed my forehead again. "Goodnight, Love." He whispered._

"_Night." I whispered back to him, turning over onto my side and fell asleep._

_He softly closed my door, and went into Zoe's room. She was on her computer, checking out an article about _Hamlet._ "So," She said, not looking at him. "Did you tell her?"_

_He sighed, "No. No I didn't."_

_She sighed, and turned to him, "Hannibal, you have to tell her."_

"_Don't you use my first name. And I didn't tell her, because maybe she doesn't have to know."_

"_Look, King. She's going to find out one way or another. It would be better if her father told her, rather than her waking up Wednesday morning wondering where you are." Zoe shot back._

_He squinted his eyes, "You're very sassy for a 17 year old." She rolled her eyes at him. "But still, I don't want to hurt her. She's-she's so young. She wouldn't understand."_

"_What wouldn't she understand, King? That your leaving her to go kill vampires? She's lived with that scenario her whole life. The only difference between you leaving then and you leaving now, is that you're leaving for good this time." she was angry at him, and he knew it._

"_I'm not leaving for good, Zoe. Maybe a week or so. And, I just want you to take care of her while I was gone." He asked , and he sounded desperate._

_Zoe sighed again, "I just want her to be prepared, okay? I worry about her."_

"_I do too, and that's why-"_

"_You should tell her." she cut him off. She stared at him with the look that he taught her many years ago._

_He let out the breath that he had apparently been holding in, "Okay, I'll tell her tomorrow."_

"_Okay. Now, go get some sleep, you're gonna need it." She slightly smiled, and he gave her the same smile. He stood up straight, and headed towards the door._

"_Night."_

"_Goodnight, King." And he left her._

_~.~.~.~.~.~.~_

_The next morning, King got up at his normal time, and started to make breakfast for the three of us. It was always the same every morning: dry cereal and orange juice for me, plain waffles with syrup and milk for Zoe, and blueberry waffles with black coffee for King. It had been that way since I had been able to chew._

"_Hey," he said with delight as Zoe and I walked into the kitchen. "How're my favorite girls, huh? Made breakfast." he placed down each of our plates, and gave us our usual drinks. _

"_I'm good, Daddy." I said to him, picking up my spoon and started to eat._

"_Fine, just fine." Was Zoe's response._

"_Anita, got something to tell you." King a little while later._

"_Shoot."_

"_Well, I'm going on a little trip tomorrow." He knew he was sugar coating it, but when he looked at Zoe, she urged him on with a nod. "And, I'm going to be gone for a little bit, okay."_

"_Are you going to get rid of the bad people?" My innocence was making it harder for him to tell me this._

"_Yeah, so they don't come back and scare ya." He reached over the small table, and ruffled my short hair._

"_How long will you be gone?" I finished my cereal, and sipped the last of my juice._

_He shook his head a little as he said, "Not long. Maybe a week or so. I'll be back before you know it, Squirt." He smirked, and picked up my bowl._

"_Daddy, why can't I have milk like Zoe?" I questioned for I had no medical knowledge of any kind._

"_Well Squirt, your body can't. Uh, how do I put this? Your body doesn't like any kind of dairy products, so, it gets rid of the dairy product by throwing it up." He explained simply using hand motions. _

"_Ooh...okay." I jumped out of my chair, and ran to my room to start coloring._

_I seemed like minutes, but it was really hours, when Hannibal came into my room. My head shot up when the door opened. "Hi, Daddy." I said happily._

"_Hey, Squirt; what ya coloring?" he asked, sitting down cross legged next to me. _

"_Zoe, you and me." he looked over my shoulder, and saw the three of them, standing together next to a pile of dead vampires. _

_'Maybe it wasn't a good idea to raise her in this environment.' he thought with regret._

_~.~.~.~.~.~.~_

_King was getting ready to shove off very early in the morning, hoping that I wouldn't wake up in time for me to see him off. But unfortunately for him, I got up just in time for him to finish packing. When he was about to leave, I attached myself to his leg. _

"_Do you have to leave?" I pouted against his leg._

"_Yes, honey. It's all going to end up good, okay? I'll be home soon." he then tried to pry me off his leg, but with no avail. _

"_Where are you going that's not here?" I looked up his entire body up to his bearded face._

"_A little out of town," he lied. He was really going to a large town in Missouri._

"_Does this mean I have to go away too?" I asked him. He got a questionable look on his face and sat down, knees still up and me still hanging on._

"_What are you talking about Nita?" he asked, picking me up from his leg and into his lap._

"_Well, I wanna be just like you. And you're leaving. That means I have to leave too." Again with my innocence._

_He gave me a playful look, "You stay here where it's safe, okay. And don't worry, I'll be back."_

_I pouted again, "Promise?"_

_He nodded, "Promise." I looked away from his face and down at his chest. "Hey," his finger brought my chin up to look at his face again. "I wanna give you something." he reached up, and took his necklace from his own neck and put it on me. "This necklace is very important to me, your mom gave this to me when we first met. And I want you to hold onto this, 'till I get back. Can you do that for me?" I nodded with importance. He looked a sad look at me, then gently wiped the tip of my nose with his finger. "You're going to be a great vampire hunter one day. Now, I have to go, okay?"_

_I nodded again, "Okay." _

_Hannibal stood up, and placed me back on the floor. "Bye, Squirt. I'll see ya in a little bit." he waved at both me and Zoe who had just arrived, and walked out the door._

My eyes shot open and I started gasping for air. "Daddy," I whispered with sadness. Then, beyond my control, tears started to run my face in remembrance for the father I never saw again.


	4. Chapter 4

Justin was passing the infirmary, heading towards the rec hall to shoot some hoops before bed when he heard crying. He quietly went to investigate, and he saw that I was practically bawling my eyes out. "Hey," he called out in a soft tone so as not to spook me as much. "You okay?" he came over and sat in the chair that was sitting next to the bed I was laying in.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I reached up and wiped my tears away.

"What's got you crying like that?" his voice sounded generally concerned.

"Nothing. Just, go away." I turned away from him.

"Look, you don't want to tell me, fine, don't. I just wanted to know if you were okay." He stood up and left, wondering why he even cared. He went onto the the court only to find Zoe leaving her lab with a large needle full of blue liquid.

"Hey, Justin," she said, stopping in front of him. "Could you tuck Zack in? I want to sit with Anita when she goes through this."

"Yeah, definitely. Where is he?" He asked, more than glad to tuck the kid in.

"He's watching a movie on the computer. I told him bed time as soon as it's over. And that goes for the both of you." She said sternly pointing her finger at him.

"Yes, mom." he joked, and went to Zoe's lab, only to find Zack almost asleep at the desk. "Sup, Zack." Justin took a seat from Hodge's old station and rolled it up next to him. "What you watching?" he asked, kind of confused at the whole black and white thing.

"I really don't know. I found it buried in a folder, and I was bored, so I put it on." Zach said with a tired voice.

"Why is it in a foreign language? As well as black and white?" Justin asked, a disgusted look on his face.

"It's probably old. Like, _Phantom of the Opera_ old." Zack concluded, letting his head down for a second. When he popped back up, he asked, "Is Anita a vampire?"

That caught Justin by surprise, "Why would say that?"

"Well, mom just left to go see her with the cure." Then, Zack turned to Justin and looked at him with the eyes only a child could have. "Is she going to be okay?"

He nodded, "Yeah, she's gonna be fine. You just gotta give her some time to get better. And that means, not going too close to her until mom says you can. Alright?" He patted him on the shoulder as Zack nodded back. "Hey," Justin said after a few minutes of watching the confusing foreign film. "You interested in this movie?" Zack shook his head. "How bout we just go to bed?"

"Sounds good." Zack yawned. Justin picked him up, threw him over his shoulder and started to walk to Zack's bedroom, him laughing on the way. When they were passing the infirmary, Justin caught the sounds of muffled screams of pain. He then quickened his pace so that Zack hopefully didn't hear them. When they got to his room, and Justin had laid him down on his dinosaur sheeted bed, Zach asked him, "That was Anita, wasn't it?" His voice sounded like it had been full of misery for years.

Justin decided that the best thing for Zack now, was to tell him the truth, "Yeah, it was."

"Is the cure really that painful?"

"Well Zack you have to understand. That cure kills every cell that the vampire virus has infected. It's painful because it's killing living cells inside a person's body. She's going to be hurting for a long time." It's for the best, Justin had to keep telling himself. "Night, kid."

"Night, Justin." Justin then got up, turned the light off, and closed his door.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Daddy," I cried, and then just started to practically sob for my lost father.

"Hey," a soft voice called out to me. "You okay?"

I looked and saw Justin. "Yeah, I'm fine." I wiped away my tears.

"What's got you crying like that?" he asked, he sounded like he really was concerned.

But it was probably just an act, "Nothing. Just go away." I turned from him

"Look, if you don't want to tell me, fine, don't. I just wanted to know if you were okay." I probably pissed him off, and he left.

A minute or so later, Zoe came in asking, "How you doing?"

"I feel like I'm going to eat someone." I said with all seriousness. I looked at the large needle with large eyes. "Is that it?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Just wanted to know if you were ready."

"I have been ready for a long time."

She nodded again, "Okay. But there's just a few things that I have to do to secure some safety."

"You have to tie me down, don't you?" I said, knowing that was what she had meant to do.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, but, Zack-"

"I know." I cut her off. "Just do it, please." I sounded so desperate.

Instead of nodding, she just went, got some leather vices, and locked my arms and legs down. "Ready?"

"Do it." I nodded quickly, and she stuck the needle in my right arm. When she let the vicious cure into my arm, pain started right away. I clenched my fists, digging my nails into my palms. My face became fixed in a horrible look of clenched lips and eyes closed as tight as possible. I quietly screamed in my mouth so that I didn't alarm anybody. All of my muscles went rigid, and I started to shake uncontrollably. When I finally pried my eyes open, I saw Zoe looking down at me with motherly eyes.

"It's going to be okay. I'm going to stay here with you, until it's over. I promise." I nodded quickly and violently. My entire body became rigid, and my breaths now became short and shallow. Because my body was like a wooden board, and for some reason, I couldn't close my eyes.

Then, Justin came into my view, "Hey. How she doing, Z?"

"She's about halfway through the bad part." She looked at her watch. "It's been about ten minutes since the injection; it should be over soon. At least this part; the rest will take time. Why don't you go on and get to bed, I'll stay with her."

"No. You've been up longer than I have, you get some sleep. I'll stay till it's over."

"No." She shook her head. "I promised her-"

"Then don't leave." He interrupted her. "Just sit in a chair and rest. Pardon my French but you look horrible. You've been up for days on end. You need sleep."

"Maybe you're right. I just want to be there for her," Zoe finally sat down.

"And you will be. Z, she's not going anywhere. Not as long as I'm around." He reassured her. She nodded, and snuggled up in the chair.

Justin pulled up another chair, and sat next to me for a while. And he waited for those ten minutes to be up. When they were, everything stopped. My breathing, heartbeat, my body went limp; everything just stopped. He started to get concerned after a minute or so that I hadn't shown any sign of life, but I spooked him when I took a large breath that got me breathing regularly. My throat was dry for some reason, and I started to moan in discomfort.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You're okay. Hold on, I'll be right back." Justin cooed, then left. When he came back, he had a glass of water. "That's better," He said, holding my head up, and pouring the water into my mouth.

"Thank you," I whispered, obviously tired from my previous activities.

"No problem." He had a saddened look on his face. I wondered why he was looking at me like that.


	5. Chapter 5

I was back on my feet in no time. Although Zoe pretty much kept me locked in my room for the rest of the healing process, I was still able to walk throughout the compound at night. A week after my return, Zoe and I were enjoying some hot chocolate in spirit of the Christmas season.

"Zoe," I groaned. "How long is this going to take?" My mouth was so sore from my teeth retreating back into my gums.

"Anita, it's going to take a time, okay? I mean, first thing was that your eyes regain your pigment, right?" I nodded. "And now your fangs are receding. Next thing will probably be you gaining your UV immunity again."

"But my mouth hurts! I feels like I have cuts all over it and I'm eating salt cubes!" I complained.

"Oh, stop your whining, it'll be over before you know it. And besides, it's Christmas! Enjoy being home, would you?" She teased.

"So, is Ustin-jay laying-pay Anta-say Laus-cay?" I said in pig Latin just in case Zack happened to be listening.

"As far as I know, unless you wanna give it another shot." She offered.

"No no, I'm fine. Let the big strong man do it." I made fun of him.

"Now why are you talking about him like that? I mean he did save your life." She reminded me, getting up, me following her.

"True, but I probably would have gotten out of there eventually. Novak just gave me a few more feet on the leash like a few hours before y'all showed up. Shoot, I could've explored the building." She laughed when we entered Justin's room. We then locked the door, and grabbed a large plastic box from his closet. In the box, we found three large rolls of wrapping paper, scissors, tape, a few presents that weren't wrapped, and a few that were. "Hey, can I ask you something?" I asked Zoe as we set ourselves up for a wrapping present time.

"Go ahead," She replied, pulling our the few presents that weren't wrapped.

"Is there any way that I can go out and into the city before Christmas?" She looked at me with disappointment.

"Anita, we've been-"

I cut her off, "It's not for my benefit. It's for him. I was gonna get Justin a present as a thank you." She just stared at me.

"Why don't you tell me what you want to get him, and I'll get it for you." She tried to reason with me.

"But it would be more personal if I got it for him." I sounded desperate.

Now she was a little interested, "What did you want to get him?"

I smirked a little as I finished taping up one of Zack's presents. "A necklace."

"Okay, I'll think of something. I will get you to the city, during the day. I promise." She smiled and we continued to wrap presents. A little while later, when we were almost done with the presents, Justin tried to get in to his room, but he kind of couldn't, because we locked the door.

"Orange Muffins," he said, a little fed up.

Neither one of us wanted to get up, so we played a vigorous game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot. And of course, I lost. All three games. So I pulled my self up, and unlocked the door. "Sorry," I apologized, then sat back down with Zoe. "And thank you for saying the secret phrase. It means a lot to me." I said, mimicking him.

"I shouldn't have to say that stupid secret phrase to get into my own room!" He was really angry for some reason. Was he PMSing?

"What's up your ass?" I started to get a little frustrated with his attitude.

"Well, it's mostly the fact that I have to say a stupid phrase to get into my room." Oh, great, another fight.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you wanted to play Anta-say Laus-cay! You wanted that job." We were right up in each other's face. Now, I was just being stupid, and I really didn't mean it when I said, "See your fangs went away."

And threw it right back into my face. "See yours haven't."

Low fucking blow. We stared at the other for a while. But I broke contact by turning around and leaving and slamming the door on my way.

"Real nice, Justin. Real fucking nice." Zoe sounded disappointed and angry.

Just then, Justin hit himself in the face very hard. "Real fucking nice, Justin! Real fucking nice!" he shouted at himself. "Oh, God fucking damn it!" Zoe was trying to understand what was going on in that little head of his. After hitting himself a few more times, he sat down on his bed all angry like.

"Okay, um, I'm going to give you five seconds to tell me what's going on with you." Zoe said calmly, hoping that it would be contagious.

"I don't know why, but every time I start talking to her, I just get so competitive and I need to fight with her. I mean, why do I have to strike up a fight over something so small and stupid as locking the door and making me say a code phrase? I didn't even care about it." He was so upset with himself, that he started hitting himself again.

"Hey, hey, hey," Zoe came up to him and took his hands away from his face. "Why do you need to be competitive with her? Is it because she's back? That she's going to be taking my place in the field? Just tell me why you have to be so upset with her when she's done nothing to you." Zoe was very concerned with this hidden anger that was locked inside him. If I was going to be part of the team again, then we needed to have a relationship that wasn't hostile.

"I just don't know. I think that I'm jealous at who she is, and how much more experience she has over me. I just want to be the best I can be-"

"Then join the army." She interrupted him. "You don't have to be the best. Hell, the three of us combined will never even come close to the best. He was a solo act from the beginning, and he left a long time ago. And he's probably never coming back. So, why try to be the best solo act, when you can be good and have two other people to back you up?" She was always great at lectures, even when we were younger.

"Who was he?" Justin had turned into a curious child.

"His name was Blade. And maybe he wasn't a complete solo act, but he was alone, a lot. After his mentor, his father died, the defeat of Dracula, he left. And he was the best, and probably always will be. And the thing is, we shouldn't envy him. Yeah, he was the greatest, but, he had the worst situations. His life was horrible. So don't try and be the best, don't want to be the best, be as good as you need to be in the moment. And not any better." She was like, his mom at that moment.

He took a deep breath, "I should probably apologize." He stated simply.

"Yeah," she rubbed circles on his back. "You probably should."

He got up and went to the door, just as he was about to leave, he turned around, "What should I say?"

Now Zoe was at a loss for words.


	6. Chapter 6

I had stormed up to the roof. Zoe would flip shit if she found out I went outside, especially this close to dawn. I knew I was asking for it when I started it, but he had never been a vamp. Fangs to me are a sign of weakness, of shame. I thought I was better then them. I thought I was good enough to avoid getting caught. I was so stupid! I should have known better than to fall for Novak's pale eyes. But they looked so nice at the club. And he seemed so sweet...

"You know, Zoe's going to kill you if she finds you up here." My thoughts were thankfully interrupted by one of the only other men in my life.

"Yeah, well I'll deal with that road when I come to it." I didn't look at him. I just stared longingly at the 'dark' city.

"Look, Anita, I'm sorry-"

I interrupted him. "Don't be, I started it. It was my fault." I turned to him. "It _was_ a stupid phrase-"

"I wasn't mad about the phrase. I-I-I'm angry because I'm jealous." he really struggled getting out the truth.

I looked at him a little weirdly. "Why are you jealous? You have no reason to be."

"I'm jealous, because your better than me, and I want to be better than I am."

My reaction to his statement was very strange. It was a mixture of strangeness, some confusion, and surprise. "Why do you want to be better? You are already the best I know. And trust me, if you want to be better," I got up real close to his face. "Make sure you don't get caught. Because when you do, you aren't going to bust in your own cell door to save yourself." I gave him a wink, then I walked past him.

"What about Hannibal?" His words made me stop dead in my tracks. "

"What about Hannibal?" I repeated, turning slowly with no emotion on my face.

"He's the best that I know of. I don't even come close. And look at you: you got the name, and the genes. You're going to be the best, and it bothers me that I won't ever be that good." He seemed angry at me for something that wasn't my fault.

"You do realize that names aren't important, at all. I mean, by fuck, if my parents had been hobos and named me Hullabaloo Jones, I would still be as good as I am. And I'm sorry if you want to be good like me, but let me tell you something: if you really want to be better than you are, you need to want to be better than you are, and do something about it. Now listen to me, Justin Strain," I got right back up in his face, and told him encouragingly, "You will make something of yourself. And you will make your name famous among all vampire hunters throughout the whole world." Okay, so I was exaggerating a little. "But what it will come down to, will be how well you fought for the title."

He let out a deep breath before heading back inside with me. "Have you ever thought about becoming a guidance counselor?"

I chuckled a little. "Once, but then I realized that I hate people." And he laughed.

--

It was Christmas. I wasn't able to be there when Zack opened his presents. Why did the god damned cell just had to have so many fucking windows! I sat in my room all day. Zoe had draped sheets over my window to keep the sunlight out when I arrived. And she lied to me, she never did take me out. But I was going anyway. I had bundled my arms and legs up with boots, pants, gloves, and a jacket. I had then applied like three layers of SPF 80 sunblock to my face. I put a skull cap on, and a scarf around my neck and also wrapping it so that it covered the bottom half of my face. Like Zoe said, I can't be too careful. I took a deep breath before I stole out my window, and fell the two stories before gracefully landing on both feet. I felt like a cat...I hate cats. I ran from the back of the pier to the entrance, and stopped to look back. Zoe will kill me, but I'll deal with that when it's put on my plate. I walked among everyone else. Being in a city, no one looks at you twice and remembers you; even if you are literally on fire. I was just another person bundled up from the cold. After a half hour of being part of the faceless crowd, I finally came to the shop that I had aimed for. When I came in, the owner seemed delighted to see me.

"Welcome to _Hojem Diamonds, Gold, and Jewelry_! How may I be of service?" He wore the genuine smile of a gentle old man.

"I'm looking for a silver cross necklace." I said, pulling down the scarf so that the bottom half of my face was now showing. He immediately shuffled into the back room and came back with a necklace stand full of silver necklaces with cross charms. When he set it down in front of me, I inspected each one carefully. Unfortunately, every one of them had a diamond or a gem on it. "Do you have one that doesn't have any kind of gem on it?" I asked hopefully.

He thought for a moment, "I might have one. Hold on for a minute." I nodded and he went into the back room again. I looked at the clock, 12:26. If it takes a half hour to get back, then I needed to hurry this up before the sunblock runs out. "Here's the ticket." he held out a small Celtic cross about the size of my charm on a chain matching mine.

I was in love. "That's perfect. How much?"

"300." he said. But he regretted it when he saw my face.

"I don't have that much." I replied with sadness.

"How much do you have sweet?" the term of endearment helped ease the sad feeling.

I tried to remember how much I had in my wallet, "210, maybe."

He smiled, "It's yours." He brought a velvet box from under the counter out and put the necklace in it.

"Sir, I don't want to take 90 from you-"

He interrupted me. "Honey, don't worry about it. You look like a good girl. And besides, you must want it more than I do." I smiled back, and pulled out my wallet. I paid the man, he gave me the box, and I went on my way. I actually got back to the cell within a half hour, so I had some time to find a way back up to my room without 'mom' noticing. Surprisingly, I did it. I silently went through the compound avoiding her office, and slid into my room. I heaved a sigh of relief when I fell onto my bed. But, I didn't get too much relief when the door that connected mine and Justin's room opened and he stormed in.


	7. Chapter 7

"OKAY!" he shouted, slamming his door and getting up in my face like we always do. "The next time you want to sneak out, please tell me about it so I can come up with a story that at least sounds kind of plausible!"

His answer surprised me a little, "Say again?"

"Next time you want to sneak out, let me know, so I can come up with a better story than, 'She's sleeping'." He backed off and talked in a softer tone. "So, you okay? Any...complications?"

"No," I sat up on my bed and patted for him to sit next to me. He did. "I bundled up real good, put SPF 80 sunblock on, and I was good. Nothing burned, or was affected. It was like, everything was back to normal." I looked into a corner of the room, thinking about how corny that last sentence was.

"What did you go out for anyway?" He questioned.

I didn't answer for a second. I didn't know if I should give him his present now or later...Now. "Your Christmas present." I pulled it out of my coat pocket, and handed him the velvet, rectangular box.

When I held it out for him, he didn't know what to do. So, he quickly went into his room and came back out with a wrapped box. "Merry Christmas," he said, handing me the wrapped box. I unwrapped it, and pulled out a picture frame. Immediately, my eyes welled up with tears. It was a picture that Zoe had taken right before he left. We were at the park that day, and King had decided to pick me up and swing me around by my arms. It was so fun; I felt like I was flying. We both had huge smiles on our faces. I didn't know, but a tear had fallen down my cheek. "I'm sorry," he brought me out of my daydream. "I didn't mean to make you cry." Justin wiped away the tear.

"It's okay. Thank you. Every now and then, I need to remember the good times, when it was just the three of us." I remembered for a moment, but then said. "Hey, open up yours."

He nodded, and lifted the top. He looked from me to the necklace three times before shaking his head and handing it back. "I can't take this. It must have cost you a fortune."

"I bought it for you. It's yours." I pushed it back towards him with a kind of sad smile.

"Thank you." He took the cross out of the box and put it on. Then, out of nowhere, I hugged him, and he hugged me back. "Merry Christmas, Anita."

"Merry Christmas, Justin."

After we broke, he said, "Oh, Zoe wanted me to give you these when you 'wake up'." He went into his room again, and brought out two presents. I took them carefully, and set them down on my lap.

"I don't deserve these." I handed them back.

"It's Christmas," He placed them on my lap.

Sighing in defeat of the holiday, I picked up the first one, it was from Zack. I ripped the wrapping paper to find a CD case. I took out the CD, and put it in the DVD player that was connected to the standard television on my dresser. When it finished loading, a menu popped up with a list of about fifteen movie titles. I couldn't believe it. "How did he get these movies? I thought I buried them in some distant folder with a password." The list went from _Incubus_ (1965) to _Bram Stoker's Dracula_ (1992). "Dude, there's no way a ten-year old could get through everything I put up to keep these under wraps."

"Why put up so much securities for a bunch of movies?" Justin asked.

"These are the most horrible movies ever made. Take _Incubus_, it is the cheesiest movie I have ever seen. A) it has William Shatner in it; and B) it's black and white and in Esperanto. Why anyone would want to see it, is beyond me." I turned off the TV and DVD player, and opened Zoe's present. It was a new weapon: it has an arm band with two ties so that it was secure on your arm, and it had a little loop at the top of it so that when you wrapped the little loop around your middle finger, a palm cover and a button were there. When you pressed the little button a large silver needle came shooting out the tube that connected the two ties. "That is interesting." I commented, and pushed the button again. The needle went back into the tube.

"Where did she find that?" he was awing it like I was.

"I have no idea." We were gazing amazement at it when the alarm went off. "Someone's here." We both booked out of the room, to find a vamp throwing Zoe across her own section of the hideout. She hit the concrete wall, and fell limp on the floor. We ran towards it when it started towards a cowering Zack. Justin jumped on it's back, and I took out it's legs. He fell on his face, and Justin pinned it's legs and arms. I pushed the little button and jammed the needle into the vamp's head, causing him to scream and wither in pain as it turned to ashes right from under Justin. "Go check on Zack," I said to my heavy breathing partner. He nodded, and headed towards the kid. I went the opposite direction to check on Zoe. "Hey Z, you alright mate?" I sat her up, and checked her pulse, it was normal.

She groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. "Oh, my left hemisphere hurts."

I slightly chuckled, but then went all serious. "Did he get you?"

"I don't think so, but you should check me out, just in case." I nodded, and started to check all of the obvious places for anything peculiar. It didn't take long for me to find two holes in her upper right arm.

"Fuck!" I shouted, hitting the wall with anger. "Okay, stay right there." I got up, and ran to the infirmary. I searched the drawers until I found a syringe filled with garlic. I ran back and injected it into her. She writhed a little, groaned even more, but she stopped after a few minutes. I picked her up, and took her to the infirmary. I laid her down in the bed, and was followed by Justin who was carrying Zack. Zack went from his arms to mine and I hugged him tightly. "Merry Christmas, babe." I kissed his temple.

"Did you like my gift?" he asked, still shocked from the attack.

"Yeah, I loved it." I hugged him even tighter when we walked away.


	8. Chapter 8

"How you feeling, Z?" I asked the next day when she woke up.

She groaned, "Kind of better. My arm hurts though." She sat herself up. "Everyone okay?"

I nodded, "Yeah, and thanks for that new weapon. It helped." We sat in the awkward silence that had followed for a minute or so before, "How did it get in?"

"I don't know," she shook her head. "It must have slipped past the security...somehow." she grabbed her head and groaned.

"Hey hey, you okay?" I asked, getting up and inspecting her head. There was a large cut on the left side of her head. "No wonder why your left hemisphere hurt." I grabbed a large piece of gauze from the side table's drawer and put it on the wound with pressure. She winced and once again groaned in pain. "It's alright. You're going to be okay. I'll stitch this up, and clean you up, and you'll be on your way."

"Thanks, Dr. Nito." She replied sarcastically.

"Hey, you watch your mouth. I'm the one with the needle." I grabbed an already prepared needle and thread from the drawer, which had pretty much everything in it, and got an antibacterial pad. I made the first dig into the skin and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And after the first it got even easier from there on. After ten stitches, I tied off, and cleaned the newly stitched up cut with the pad. "There you go, and don't forget to take a Tylenol every now and then," I said distractedly as I searched the cabinet across the room for the bottle of Tylenol. I grabbed it, and handed it to her. "Now, let me help you to your room so you can get some real quiet."

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and I helped her onto her feet. I threw her arm around my shoulders and helped her to her room which was connected to Zack's, which was next to mine, which was connected to Justin's which was next to the spare room, just in case he ever came back. "You know," she started as I laid her down. "I could have stayed in the infirmary."

"Yeah, well I couldn't have that. I mean what if I get hurt again? You know I get almost killed like once every week. No, you stay here and get some rest. I have already threatened the boys that if they bother you, I will throw them in the dungeon."

"We don't have a dungeon." She replied as I got up to the door.

"Oh, I have a dungeon." I did quick eyebrow raises, and I left her in peace. I went to the workout room to run a few miles on the treadmill before bed, but to my surprise, Justin was already on it. Deciding to finally get to know my new partner, I walked up to him and said, "Hey, I wanna talk to you."

"Hold on, almost got eight miles-"

"No, now." I interrupted him.

"Okay, okay, hold your horses." he said, pushing the STOP on the treadmill and getting off. "What's your beef?"

I was trying to avoid the whole situation, for I was not comfortable talking about my own past, why should he? "I just wanted to talk."

"About what?" He squinted his eyes in suspicion.

"Um, uh...oh, jeez," JUST SPIT IT OUT! "Can we go to the roof, please?"

He was still eying me suspiciously. "Yeah, sure." We didn't speak on our way up to the roof, but instead of walking behind someone so I knew where they were at all times, I walked beside him, as an equal. When we got up to the roof, it was dark, about nine-ish at night. "So," he said turning to me as we approached the side of the roof where a ledge was so that we could sit down on it. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I just," I paused, sighing. "I just want to know more about you, that's all."

"Why?"

"Because if something like tonight happens again, and we loose Zoe, I want to know who I'm sitting next to at the breakfast table." I didn't even look at him the entire time I was making my heartfelt sentence.

"Hey," he said in a calming voice that just flooded through my entire body, soothing me. "If you wanted to know about my past, all you had to do was ask." I nodded, and he started his travel through time. "When I was about 5 years old, my dad left me and my mom. A few years later, he came back. But he brought with him some friends of his. What neither my mother nor I knew, was that his friends were vampires, and that he was one as well. Him and his friends stayed for a few days before they attacked my mom. She started getting scared the day before they attacked, and unknown to them, sent me to my Aunt's house in Buffalo. I stayed there for the rest of my grade school career, and then I moved to St. Louis. I found this guy, his name was Jack Seethe, and he sold stuff to kill vampires. Let's just say we became quick friends. I went out searching for my dad for two years to pay him back for what he had done to my mom. I went all over the world, and I finally found him in Essex, England. He obviously didn't recognize me, so I pretended to be a tourist trying to find a certain museum. When he turned to show me directions, I pulled out a silver steak and jabbed it into the base of his neck. I then grabbed his hair, turned his head to look at me, and said with a rage that I never want to feel again, 'Remember me now?' His eyes became so wide as he turned to ashes. Now after two years, I moved here, and I started to take down small packs. And then, just under three months ago, I met Zoe. She was in the middle of a large circle of vamps, so I stepped in and took out about half of them. She was so grateful, that she offered me to join her in her to quest to find you. And then, here I am." He finished, and then it was my turn. "What about you?"

I took a deep sigh. "My dad left Zoe and I when I was 7."

"What about your mom?" he interrupted.

"Let's just say that, the only thing she gave me was an X chromosome."

He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"She died during child birth."

"Oh, sorry. Please, keep going."

And so I did. "He promised to come back...but he didn't. He gave me this," I held up the charm. "and he told me that he would be back for it. When it was time for me to go to school, Zoe had me placed in a public school close to home so that she didn't have to completely abandon the Honeycomb Hideout everyday to come pick me up. My teachers hated me so much because I would never bring my parent to any conferences or meetings. Pretty much all of my teachers, except the art teachers, hated me all throughout my grade school life. And when I needed someone to come so that I didn't get detention, Zoe would come to the rescue and lie to my teachers that my dad was on a long business trip, and we didn't know when he would come back. God, why couldn't he just come back? It's his fault that I'm like the way I am." I shook my head during the small silence that had followed my last statement.

"Who was your mom?" he asked, for he knew that Hannibal King had a reputation for sleeping with all of the wrong women.

"I don't know..uh," I really concentrated on going through my entire brain to find the one name that meant absolutely nothing to me. "Whist-Whistler, maybe?"

He nodded, "Abigail Whistler."

"Look, I don't know her name, okay? I never met her. I might have been connected for oh, about nine months, but still never met her." I turned away and folded my arms over my chest. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

He came up behind me and put a hand on my right shoulder. "I know you miss him. But you can't blame him for how you turned out. _You_ made all of your choices. Not him."

I turned and started to get angry, "The day he left I told him that I wanted to be just like him. And I asked him if that meant I had to leave too. And he told me that I should stay here where it was safe, and to not worry, he'd be back. And being the naïve child I was, I believed him."

He took a step closer to me. "You know, you aren't the only one in the world with 'Daddy' issues."

I stepped closer. "I know, but at least I admit I have issues."

He took one more step; we were now in each other's face yet again. "At least I know mine's dead. Where's yours again?"

My face fell and I retreated. Too mean. I started to walk away when I turned and said to him. "You know Justin, that is my problem: I don't know where he is."

I had turned back around when he said, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I-I never do!"

Yet again, I turned to face him. "I know that you didn't. And I know that you understand. But you have to realize that as far as I know, my dad isn't dead. But I have given up looking for him. All hope that I had of him coming back when I was a kid, is gone. He said he would always protect me and Zoe, and he's not here." Out of nowhere, he came up and hugged me. I really didn't know what to do, so I rested my head on his chest and let him hug me. He was warm, and I felt so safe in his arms.

"I promise to protect you." His soft voice whispered in my ear. "And if that means taking a bullet, I will."

And that's when I felt it. It was a small feeling about Justin that I had felt once, but it wasn't anywhere near as strong as this one. I picked my head up, and looked into his eyes for just a second before I closed them, and moved my head up just enough to kiss him gently on the lips. I put my head back into his chest, and before he could say anything, I said into his chest, "Thank you."


	9. Chapter 9

It felt so good to be back at work. And Sam pretty much rejoiced the day I walked through the door with my uniform on. Yes, I know what you're thinking: Anita works? Maybe that's how they bank roll their whole operation. Yes, I do work. I had to start to keep Zack fed and clothed when Zoe was off risking her life every night. And I have worked there since I was 13 or 14. Sam and I both knew it was illegal for me to work in a bar, but I never touched anything that he told me not to; I was also paid under the table so the government never found out about it until I turned 18. And even then Sam put me down as being 21. So, according to the government, I was really 26; when in actuality, I'm 22.

"Sam! My man!" I cried when I opened the door to make an entrance.

"Anita! My girl!" He was the **only** person allowed to call me 'girl'. "Oh, my God! When did you get out?" His smiling fangs flashed in my face like they always did.

"About a month ago. Oh, my goodness, Zoe kept me inside the Honeycomb for a month. RRRRRR, I almost killed myself." I joked as he led me to the back. "So, how has business been without me?"

"It could have been better." We sat down on the couch in the back room. "So what did you think?"

I shook my head when I said, "I...hated everything. I honestly thought about committing suicide."

"Did you ever have a drink?" He asked in a quiet almost ashamed of asking way.

"No. I kept convincing myself that I was better than that. Also the random speaking of Latin got my mind off of most of the temptation." He smiled when I said 'Latin'.

"What would you say?"

I smiled back at him. "I would mostly repeat the Pledge Of Allegiance, but other times I would say nonsense Latin."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, "You glad to be back?"

"The pep in a rich high school cheerleader could not even come close to my happiness that I'm out."I said in cold sarcasm. He just smiled brighter.

"Ready for work?" he tossed me my set of fake fangs.

"Yeah, more than ready." I placed them in my mouth, and went out to be the waitress I always had been. "Do I look gorgeous?" I joked as I picked up a notepad and apron from under the counter.

"You always did." We both smiled at the other, and I went out to wait on the regulars during 'happy hour'.

Four guys started looking me over when I approached their table. "Well, hello there gentlemen. Is there anything I can get you to start?" Sam's was a bar/safe house/grill. So, the only people that ever went there were already dead. And it wasn't the clogged arteries from the food that killed them.

"Yes," A tall brown haired one said. "Can you get us four scotches and leave the bottle? Please." He said in a very thick Southern accent.

"Anything," I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I went up to the bar, "Sam, I need four scotches and a bottle, please."  
"Starting a little early for youngins aren't they?" San questioned as he pulled out four glasses, filled them about half way, and I placed them and the bottle on a tray.

"They're Southerners." I explained before I left for the table. "Here you go," I said coming up to the table. I placed them onto the table, and felt a pinch in my upper thigh. I ignored it, "Is there anything else I can get for you gentlemen?"

The one that spoke before, spoke again. "You can tell me what house you're from."

I eyed him like a waitress earning a bigger tip. "Haben. You?" I pulled the waistband of my pants down ever so slightly so that he could see the tattoo just above my belly button.

"Senna." He pulled up his long sleeved shirt to show the Senna mark on his upper wrist.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"You can let me examine that mark of yours a little bit more, thoroughly." He said, winking and smiling enough to see the tips of his fangs.

"Play your cards right, and see what happens." I winked back and started to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.

"I meant now." He smiled evilly as he tightened his grip.

I ripped my arm out of his grasp and said furiously. "No."

"Common," he started to wrap his arms around my waist. "Just a quickie-"

"The lady said no." Sam appeared out of no where, stepping in between him and me. "Now if that's a problem with you, then you can leave." The man looked defeated under the powerful gaze of a vampire over a hundred years old.

"No problem here, sir." The man, or should I say boy, said looking away from Sam.

"Good." Sam led me away while whispering to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Sam."

"You sure?" He was a little over protective with me; seeing as how he saved me from a little vampire ambush on my way home from school during a day in December when I would go to school when it was dark and come home the same way.

"Yes, I'm sure." I tried to calm him down just a little.

"If he tries that again, I will personally make sure that the last thing he sees is daylight." He said threateningly.

"I understand. Okay? Just take it easy, it's my first day back." I smiled at him and went back to work. The next few hours went fine, no one was grabbing my ass or trying for a quickie. And then, at a little after nine, _he_ walked through the door. I sighed when I saw that he sat down at the bar. Zoe probably told him I worked here. I rolled my eyes and walked over to him. "Hello, can I get you something?"

He smiled when I approached him from behind the bar. Sam was in the back cooking some kind of heart attack that a brave soul had ordered, so I maintained the fort. "Yes, I'd like a beer, please."

"Just one though, alright? We're going out tonight." I popped the top off, and handed him a Bud Light.

"Why?" He asked, taking a small sip.

"Because in order to become the best, you have to do stuff when you don't want to." I grinned at him, and he smiled back, showing off a pair of fake dental fangs almost identical to the ones I have. "Nice teeth,"

"I could say the same thing."

"You need a mark to get in. Which house did you choose?" I questioned as Sam came out from the back.

"I chose an old school Talos mark. The bouncer actually thought that it was another house's mark." He kind of chuckled, but when he saw my weary look, he immediately stopped. "It's not...is it?"

"Yeah, it actually is." I replied in an apologetic voice. I picked up my tray, put the 'food' on it, and went to the group that had ordered it. When I came back to the bar, I quickly showed him that we had identical marks. Almost in the same place too.

"You have got to be kidding me." He said incredulously.

"Doe it look like I'm kidding?" He shook his head. "Anyway, finish and pay for that, we'll go out when I get off." He nodded and pretty much chugged the rest of his beer. He slapped enough for the beer and a 10 tip, and left.

"So, who was the boy?" Sam asked curious and scandalously.

"My partner." Sam nodded his approval. See, Sam is pro killing vamps. He was turned by his wife over a hundred years ago, and the cure hadn't come up until about thirty years ago. I keep offering it to him, but for some reason he just keeps declining.

--

It was dark when I got off at midnight (obviously). God, I hate going home, especially after work. At least I got 120 in tips, that's why I love Friday nights. "Night, Sam." I said to the owner as I came out of the back.

"Night, Anita. Safe trip home, alright?" The older man said, cleaning off a beer glass.

"Always, Sam." I smiled at him as I reached the door. "Hey, Sam," I went back to the bar. "How much ammo you got left?"

"Enough."

"How much?" I pressed him.

"Two, maybe three steaks." I reached into the pocket of my coat, grabbed the 6 shooter, and quietly slid it across the bar over to him. "No." he replied sternly. "You need it for your walk home."

"I have knives, I know how to fight. Please just take it, I want you to be prepared, just in case. To be safe."

He slid the gun back over to me. "You need it more than I do. No go on, before it gets any later."

Being the stubborn person I am, I left the gun out on the counter before I walked out. It was pretty cold outside, so I wrapped my arms around myself and prepared for the two mile walk back to the pier. Wow, I thought as I made my normal route home, I have been working at Sam's for almost a decade. Shit, it couldn't have been almost ten years, it didn't seem that long. I must have been lost in my thoughts for a while, because before I knew it, I was at the dock. When I got to the end of it (where the Honeycomb is), I saw a man leaning on the door to get in.

"Can I help you?" I asked as he revealed himself. Oh great, he's not dead.

"Does Zoe still live here, Anita?" Oh great, he still remembered me.

I nodded slightly. "Yeah." He stepped forward towards the door, but I stopped him with my hand. "Show me your teeth." He didn't. "Show me your teeth." I said a little sterner. He did, and two sharp fangs glared back at me. "You're sweating," I observed. "How long has it been since you last fed?" We had maintained eye contact.

"Three weeks."

I went over to the door, opened it, and stepped back. "You first." He didn't wait before he went in. We didn't say anything as we climbed the stairs. But when we got to the top, I stopped him again. "Stay here." He kindly obliged, and I went to Zoe's section of the Hideout. "Zoe," I whispered seeing Zack asleep in her arms. "Daddy's home."

Her eyes went wide and she stood up from her computer, "What?"

"Yeah. He finally decided to grace us with his presence." I said bitterly.

"Here, take Zack to his room, and tuck him in, would you?" She handed him to me, and started to walk away.

"Wait, Zoe." She stopped and came back. "He's been turned. I don't know for how long, but he hasn't fed in three weeks."

She smiled a sad smile. "I'll take care of King, you take care of Zack." I nodded, and we went our separate ways.


	10. Chapter 10

After I tucked Zack in (yes, I know what you're thinking: why would a responsible mother like Zoe let her ten year old stay up until midnight? Well, for your information, Zack just happened to be doing his homework for school), I went into my room, and sat down on the bed. I sat there for a long time before Justin came through the door that connected our rooms.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked when he saw that I was just sitting on my bed staring at the door.

"Not really." I decided to be honest, I mean, he was my partner. He came over and sat down next to me, and for some reason I felt safe.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"When I came home today, Hannibal was on the doorstep. And he didn't want to see me, he wanted to see Zoe." I said every word dripping with disdain.

"And you're jealous." he said, nodding.

"Yeah, I'm jealous. I mean he's _my_ dad, not hers. He promised _me_ he'd be back." I started to cry just a tad.

"He is back." Justin started to rub small circles on my back.

"I know, but he doesn't want to see me. Not anymore. My God, I am so angry with him; but I don't feel angry. I just...I feel empty. There's nothing left." I sobbed and he pulled me into a hug that I was so thankful for.

"Don't let the emptiness control you," He whispered in my ear. "You need to use your anger and frustration about feeling empty for your advantage. Don't do what I did." 'I shouldn't,' he thought as he held me close to him. But he did it anyway. He brought his mouth up and kissed my temple, making me feel so safe, I felt like I could stay there forever. I rested my head on his shoulder, and he gently laid his chin on the back of my head. I don't know how long we were there, but after a while, I closed my eyes, and fell asleep on his shoulder.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

_'Oh, great,' I thought as I slowly ambled through the hallway of my high school. 'Another meeting, another disappointed teacher. I absolutely did not want to have another meeting. Every time I go into one of these things, I always get yelled at for nothing. I understand that I get good grades, but I realize that I didn't have the best attitude towards anyone when they started to complain about their lives and how horrible their chores are. It made me mad to hell that they can't even imagine how upset over how my life turned out. When I opened the door, Mrs. Wawrzynek looked up from her papers at me. _

"_Sit down," She motioned towards the desk right in front of her. When I sat down she sighed. "You acted out again, Anita."_

"_I know." I nodded slightly._

"_Why?"_

"_Rachel was talking about how she hated her dad and mom because they were making her go to Yosemite this summer. How they make her feel like a child." I said a little sterner than I probably should have._

"_She didn't know." Wawrzynek came back with the same amount of sternness. She then pulled out a manila folder, opened it, and began writing on the paper inside. "Maybe you living with Zoe isn't the best idea-"_

"_Don't even say that!" I stood up from my desk and went over to hers. "Living with her is the best place for me! She is the one that helps me through everything!"_

_She stood up and pretty much towered over me, her being six four, and me being just over five foot. "Sit down, Ms. King!" We glared at each other as I took a seat. "You need to learn to respect your elders! And believe it or not, many of the other teachers, including myself, care about what happens to you. You need to stop this messing around about your father and think of your future. You need to make good plans; you can't just walk your way through life, like you are right now."_

"_Oh, yeah, like getting good grades is walking through life! Because I'm obviously Fiyero from _Wicke_d!" I shouted, and she didn't get it. "_Wicked_? It's a musical?" Still nothing. "Whatever." _

"_Look," Oh, great, she's giving me that look again. "If I hear about anymore outbreaks from any of your teachers, I will make sure that you are put into a different home. Do I make myself clear?" I didn't answer. "Ms. King?"_

"_We're clear." I said lowly defeated. "We're clear." I then got up, and walked out and was pretty much ready to go ahead and quit my last two weeks of high school._

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I opened my eyes to find that I was staring at my window. I flipped my quilt off of me, and got out of bed. "Did I go out last night?" I said to myself as I checked the chest in the corner where I keep all of my weapons.

"No, you didn't." That all too familiar voice said behind me. I spun around to my find my...father leaning on my door. We stared at each other like arch enemies would in a comic book; many of which I had collected and placed in a pile by the door. They were mostly Batman, Daredevil and Green Lantern comics, but that's besides the point. "We need to talk."

"Damn right we do." I sat down at my computer chair, which spins so that makes it all the more fun. "So, talk."

Awkward silence. After a few minutes, Hannibal spit out, "I'm glad to see you've grown up."

"That was so fan-fucking-tastic, that I almost cared. Now, unless you are going to talk about something more important, like why you were gone for, oh, I don't know, 15 years, then I have better things to do." I got up and started for the door, when I tried to open it, he pinned himself against it.

"I didn't come back when I had planned, because during those two weeks, I was kidnapped and turned."

"By who? Another Danica Talos you met in a pub?" His face became very dark.

"Don't you dare say that name to me." His voice was full of hate at both her and me.

"You know, I used to idolize you because of what you went through all those years back. But then, I had a lapse of my own, lasting about three months. By a Talos descendant no less."

Suddenly his face dropped, "They got you?" Hannibal's voice was so concerned that I almost bad for being mean to him.

"Yeah. Wanna see it? It looks exactly like yours." I pulled down the waistband of the pants I wore last night just enough for him to see it. "The same place too. Novak made sure of that."

"I so wanted to keep you from all of this." Now that I could not believe.

"Really? So, leaving us was for the better?" He looked down at me who was looking right back up at him with his look.

"I left so that I could find a place for us to live where there were no vampires. So that you, Zoe, and I can live as a normal family. But the moment that cab pulled away, I was bound and gagged and bitten, and kept in a small town in the middle of West Virginia."

Okay, so I started to cave in. "You haven't aged a day." I observed.

He nodded. "It's a side effect of the first bite. When Sommerfield first treated me, not everything was completely 'deleted'. The 'no aging' of the vampires was the gene that was not destroyed. So, if I make it to 80, I'm going to look like this. It makes me kind of sad, I wanted to grow old." I was now so caved in, I was almost to tears.

"Do you think that's gonna happen to me?" He was close to tears as well.

"God, I hope not." And then, we hugged each other like we should have last night.

"I missed you, Daddy." I cried into his shoulder.

"I missed you too, Squirt. God, you don't know how much I've missed you." He hugged me tighter than he had ever had before. And I did just the same to him.


	11. Chapter 11

That morning was almost exactly like they used to be. Hannibal got up and made breakfast for everyone. Zoe, King and I had our normal breakfast, while Justin had plain waffles with syrup and a glass of orange juice. We didn't really talk over breakfast, it was a little awkward to have both my dad and my new partner in the same room. He probably thinks that we were going to do the same thing that him and Abby did when they were partners. That's pretty gross to think about at breakfast. Oh shit, Dad's glaring at Justin. Oh, God I hope he doesn't kill him.

"Hey," Justin whispered to me, trying to keep his gaze away from Hannibal. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." I turned my head (which covered his chin and mouth) and whispered back.

"Why is your dad staring at me?" I started to smile, but I quickly swallowed it.

"He thinks we're sleeping together." I breathed, and that very much surprised Justin to which he almost fell out of his chair.

"Really?" He just could not believe it.

"Yes, I really am lactose intolerant." I covered up, which was all the more fun for me and Zoe personally, but no so fun for either King or Justin.

"You didn't know that?" King shot at him, which all the more spooked him.

"No, it never came up." Hannibal cocked his head in suspicion, and both Zoe and I were just laughing as loud as possible on the inside. "We normally talk about comic books, and superheros." And the funny thing was, he wasn't lying. That is what we really talk about when we're working out or just chilling with Zack. "Well, more of argue than talk. But that-that doesn't matter."

Before King could say anything out of his confusedness, I said like the smart ass I am. "Hannibal I have something to tell you." He turned and raised an eyebrow at my using his name. "Uh, dad, um, I'm a comic book geek." I accidentally let out a chuckle. "Excuse me," I got up from the table, and started to laugh hysterically which caused Zoe to start as I left to go get changed. When I got to my room, I took a quick shower. After, I pulled open my closet and saw that half of it was both Abby and King's old clothes. I don't remember putting them there, but like I was going to throw away clothes when my paycheck goes to feeding now five, buying clothes for Zack, and buying cars and things for new weapons. And let me tell you, my paycheck is not that big. I pulled out a random black shirt along with a pair of cargo pants as well as my black Chuck Taylors. I got dressed and just stared at the shirt in my mirror. There was a great patch job on the right shoulder, you can only tell it's there if you know that it's there. I finished the ass kicking ensemble with my Green Lantern belt buckle. That and the Chuck's were the only part of my wardrobe besides my uniform that were actually mine. The rest were old-school clothing that everyone in 2026 still wore, which surprised me.

"That shirt's bad luck." King spooked me as I found him leaning on my door way.

"How do you keep sneaking up on me like that?" He shrugged. "And how is it bad luck? It's just a shirt."

"I got stabbed in that shirt." I rolled my eyes as he ambled over to me.

"You probably got stabbed in all of your shirts."

"Yeah, but that one actually almost killed me." He stood behind me, and we looked so much alike, that I was pretty much a clone. Except he was taller, by like a foot.

"If my history is correct, this one was Dracula, right?" He nodded. "So this is the injury that caused you and Abby to do the nasty and come up with me. I should be thanking this shirt." He gave me a look in the mirror and smacked the back of my head.

"Don't be a smart ass." He took a quick look into my open closet and incredulously asked, "How many of my clothes did you steal?"

"I _claimed_ a few shirts. Not steal. The rest is all of Abby's clothes. Apparently I inherited them, so they are my main clothes. Yours are just back up."

"You didn't take any of my belt buckles, did you?" He raised an eyebrow at me, and I scoffed at him.

"God no, I have my own belt buckle thank you. Vamps and their pets, **fear** The Lantern." I showed off my belt buckle, and he shook his head and slightly chuckled.

"See you're still wearing my necklace." He said as I led him from my room.

"Well, you gave it to me, and I claimed it when you didn't come back. You see the pattern here?" I closed the door behind me, and we slowly walked towards Justin's door.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm seeing it."

I was about to knock on his door, when I stopped myself and said to him, "Please go easy on Justin. We're not sleeping around or anything else that you might have done within these walls. He's just my partner, and I really want him to be my friend. So please, back off a little. He's a really nice guy when you get to know him." I stared at him until he caved.

"Alright, I back off." He put up his hands in defeat, and I knocked on the door.

"Yo, Justin! You ready?"

"Give me one second!" He shouted from his room.

"Where are we going?" King questioned as I started for the weapons corner of the first floor.

I chuckled. "You are not going anywhere, my friend. You have to stay here and keep out of the sun."

He stared at me. "You're kidding me, right?"

I shook my head. "Daddy-o, if both Sommerfield and Abby weren't kidding you the first time you were infected, why would I be kidding you now?"

"True."

"Oh, Daddy-o, you get to spend the next month sitting in your room with the curtains pinned closed, doing nothing. Just like I had to." I gave him a smile that said, 'what now bitch'.

He gave me an evil look. "How am I going to occupy myself?"

"I have like, a million comic books stacked next to my door, you can read some of them. Justin has some too."

"What do you guys argue about?" He asked as Justin came up behind us.

I glanced up at Justin, who was the same height as King, and turned back to him. "We argue about which superhero is better: Green Lantern or Capitan Atom. You obviously know who I root for." Justin and I glared at each other for a second before taking to the weapons wall. Both Justin and I started grabbing random guns that would fit in the holsters we also got from the wall. I had both a shoulder and a waist; he had only a shoulder one, but he had silver stakes strapped to his belt and a machete sheathed at his left hip.

"Where's our first stop?" He asked as we dressed.

"Sam's." I said as I took one stake and attached it to the strap that covered the top part of my chest (It held together the two arm holes of the shoulder holster.

"You know, that holster is bad luck too." Hannibal chimed in my ear.

I turned to him with a glare. "Shut up." I walked towards the door to the garage, leaving the both of them behind.

Before Justin could follow me, Hannibal stopped him with his arm. "What's you name, son?"

"Justin Strain, sir."

"Ah, yes, I've heard of you. Killed your old man."

"Well he killed my mom first. It was only fair that he get the same fate." They stared at each other with cold eyes.

"How far are you willing to go to protect her?" King asked.

"I'd take a bullet."

"What about a bite?"

Justin was quiet for a second. "I would take a hundred bites before she even got one."

King smiled. "Welcome to the Night Stalkers."


	12. Chapter 12

"Oi! Sam!" I called as Justin and I stepped into the bar. It was close to the middle of the day, so the place was empty upstairs. The vamps that stayed for the safe-house part of Sam's, were downstairs dancing to shit-tastic music and waiting to be showered in blood. After he killed his wife for damning him, he swore off human blood, and is sent cows blood from his brother in Idaho. Sam came out from the back, and walked towards us. "Who're we after this time?"

"Deloro Sanava." He reached under the bar, and brought out a file. He slid it over to us, and I opened it so that both Justin and I could see it. On the first page was the picture of a man with dark skin and eyes so pale that they were an off white. His hair was as white as it was ever going to get, and his nose was wide. His mouth was long, and lips as thick as a finger. "He's a hundred and sixty-two years old and has a lot of back up. He's made over a hundred vamps, and has at least twice as many familiars."

"So it shouldn't be a problem finding any." I said, flipping through the other pages that pretty much stated where his main daytime places were. "What's the sign?"

Sam took the file and flipped it to the very last page where it showed a stretched version of the sign. It was a curvy L, with a small circle that was surrounded by a diamond of thin rectangles. Justin looked at the sign and smiled. "I know just the person to go to. Common." He grabbed my arm, and started to drag me out, but Sam stopped us.

"This is bad. I hear from a few vamps every other night, that if he catches someone, he never does the same torture twice."

"If I could handle the demeaning things that Novak had in mind, I think I can handle him." I winked at him, and both Justin and I left the bar to a most...interesting adventure.

Not too long after we left the bar, Justin pulled me into an alley. He pushed me against the wall, and pinned me.

I raised an eyebrow, and said, "Can I help you?"

"What did Novak do to you?" He said under his breath. He sounded and looked angry.

I looked him in the eye. "A lot of stuff."

"Be specific." He brought his face closer. Hey, haven't I been here before?

"Why do you want to know?" I stared at his beautiful face. He had soothing blue eyes that you could literally swim in. His light brown hair was cut short, but not crew-cut short. He had a smooth face, that was just so handsome you wanted to-to. No! I wasn't going down this road again.

"Because when I meet him, I want to make sure that he gets the beating he deserves." Our faces were so close now, that if I tilted my head up just slightly, I would have kissed him.

And that's what I did. I thrust my tongue into his mouth, which caught him completely off guard. I pulled his head to me, and he started to kiss me back. His tongue entwined with mine, and we kissed passionately. Justin wrapped his arms around my waist, and brought me so close to him, that if someone looked at us, they would only see one body. I finally let go of his head, and let my hands wander down to his chest. He grabbed my arms and lifted me enough so I could wrap my legs around him. My hands dropped to his cargo pants, and I undid his belt. Then I stopped kissing him. He pulled away, and looked at me strangely, like he wanted an explanation.

"That's what he did to me." He set me down, and stared at me with wide eyes.

"He r-r" He couldn't seem to say it.

"Yes Justin, he raped me. A lot."

"Wh..wh.." He was in such shock that he couldn't even complete a word.

"At least for a while. I wasn't always in the dungeon. At first he would keep me in his bedroom. After a month of him feeding on me every morning, and having me as a sex slave, I made a knife out of a tray that he would send breakfast on, and cut I his dick off." Justin smirked a bit, because he knew I would do it. "Then he put me in the dungeon. And after it grew back, he learned to ask before taking. And he never got sex from me again. Although, every time I told him to go fuck a poodle because I wasn't interested, he brought a poodle in, and fucked it in front of me. And let me tell you, it is as disturbing as it sounds."

He stared at me. And I stared right back. He slowly raised his hands, put them on my neck, and brought my face to his. This time the kiss was gentle, and inviting. His lips were so soft and warm. There was no tongue, no sexual contact, just a chaste kiss. After he pulled away, he put his forehead on mine and whispered, "I'm going to give him the most painful death he could ever experience."

I smiled a little, and kissed him in thanks. "You know, we can't make a habit out of this."

He tilted his head down and we kissed again. "Says who?"

"My father." I kissed him.

"What he doesn't know," he kissed me. "Won't hurt me." I giggled, and kissed him.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

We didn't go after familiars that day. Instead, we dropped our visible weapons off at Sam's (we snuck in and shoved them in my locker), and we went out to lunch, to a movie, and to shops and a museum. Just spending the day with each other. It was nice not to worry about people coming after me. Justin and I had a peaceful day, and it all ended too quickly. By seven o'clock, it was already getting dark. Justin sighed as we were ambling down Grant St.

"It's getting dark." I said leaning into him with my arm around his waist.

"I know." His arm was around my shoulders, and he pressed me into him even more.

"I don't want to pretend this day never happened. It was too wonderful."

"It doesn't have to end, you know." I looked up at him.

"I don't want to be out when the vampired are."

"Neither do I. But we still have time to get dinner." He offered.

"Okay." We smiled at the other, and headed off to the nearest Chinese place.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I hissed as Justin cut the side of my face. If we were going to act like we battled vampires and familiars, we were going to have to look like it. I reached up to the cut, and spread the blood around it. We were on a bench in a deserted park, so no one was staring at us, wondering what in the hell we were doing. I leaned over, and rubbed my fingers in the dirt, and smeared some of it on my face. He wiped the knife on his shirt, and handed it to me. I took it, and gave him two shorter cuts: one on his forehead, and another on the opposite side of where mine was. He then put dirt on his face, and rubbed it on his hands, pants, and shirt.

"Did you get everything out of your locker?" He asked, and I started dirtying up my clothing.

"Yeah, it's all behind the bar. Common." I grabbed him by the arm, and we ran to the bar. After we had geared up, we walked home. We didn't show any type of affection when we were walking. Practice makes perfect. We didn't even talk to each other as we entered the barge and dropped our weapons off. We didn't see neither King nor Zoe when we came home, so we figured we'd just go to bed. We had taken turns for showers since we had a connected bathroom. After I had crawled into my all too tempting bed, I couldn't sleep. Justin was the only thing on my mind. It took until one in the morning for me to realize that I wasn't going to get to sleep soon. So, I got out of bed, and walked to the door that led to his room. I hesitatingly opened the door quietly, and closed it behind me. He didn't hear me. He was too busy losing at Solitaire on the floor to hear me. I smiled slightly, and went over to him.

The first time he noticed my presence was when I whispered, "Couldn't sleep?"

He was spooked at my sudden voice, but replied. "Nope. Could you?" He turned towards me. I shook my head and sat down next to him. He pulled me into his lap, and we talked. About nothing serious, but it was fun. At two in the morning, he looked at me and said, "Do you wanna spend the night?"

I smirked when I said, "You're not gonna make me cut your dick off, are you?"

He shook his head, "No ma'am. I would never do something that you didn't want me to do."

I smiled. "I'd love to spend the night with you."


	13. Chapter 13

He stared at me. 'She is so beautiful. Always was.' He was propped up on his elbow, and he ran his fingers lightly through my hair. But it was enough of a touch to wake me up. I slowly opened my eyes, and smiled up at him and he did the same to me.

"Hey." I said.

He repeated me. "Hey."

"How long have you been up?"

"About ten minutes." It was like we couldn't stop staring at each other.

I stretched my arms out a tad. "What time is it?"

He looked behind him at the clock on his nightstand. "Almost ten."

"I'm surprised no one's busted us yet." We both smiled.

"Yeah, I thought for sure that either Zoe or your Dad was gonna knock on the door for breakfast."

"You know, that is weird, because all the time that he was here, Hannibal always made breakfast; but I don't smell waffles or pancakes." I quickly sniffed the air, and that's when I smelled it. My eyes grew wide and scared. "Do you smell that?"

Justin started sniffing the air, confusedly. "Smell what?" I quickly got up and started to get dressed. He followed me because If I thought it was bad, it most likely was. "Smell what?" he asked again.

After I had gotten dress, I turned to him and said, "Blood. I smell blood."

I left his room, and started searching for it like a dog would. "But you're not-"

"I know," I grabbed my head. "But it feels like it's right under my nose, like it's all over me, but I know it's not." Then I got a strong whiff coming from the end of the hallway of bedrooms. "Quick, get me a gun." He started to question when I interrupted him. "Just do it." He went into his room and came out with two. I took one, and started to James Bond it down the hallway. I kept the gun low as I took a quick and silent whiff out of each doorway. When I came to Zoe's door, a smell of drying blood washed over my nostrils like an ocean. "Oh, God." I said to myself. Justin understood perfectly. I backed up a little, and kicked the door open. "Holy shit." I said into the room.

Zoe was lying spread out on her bed. Originally her bed sheets were a pale blue, now they were a deep red. Her entire stomach was cut open, and you could see her intestines spilling out. I looked around the room, trying to avoid her body, and there was a message on the wall written in her blood: I'm Waiting. I was about ready to kill everything right now. And then, a thought hit me. Hannibal! I raced down the hallway to his room, pleading he was alive. Justin followed me in confusion. I threw open the door, and sighed in relief. He wasn't there. He still had a chance. Then, I went back towards Zack's door, and threw it open. I smiled. The hatch was unlocked. Good. Just then, I started laughing uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" Justin asked, getting weirded out at the fact that I was laughing at the death of my best friend. I just continued laughing until he pinned me against the wall and asked again, "What is so funny?"

"History." I laughed out. I couldn't understand why I just continued laughing.

"What about history?"

"Well, see," I started, still chuckling. "Novak first finds out who I am; then he finds me in a pub, coincidentally the same pub that my father met an evil whore by the name of Danica Talos. After he bites me, he marks me in the same spot that the evil whore marked my father. And in the days of Dracula, a few weeks before my conception, Drake had his cronies kill my mother's best friend, capture Zoe and my father, and left my mother to go after them. And guess what Novak's done? He's killed my best friend, taken my father captive, and he expects me to go after him. But do you know what he doesn't have? Guess, just guess!" I was losing my mind.

"He doesn't have Zack." Justin nodded. He had let me down from the wall when I was talking about Danica.

"He doesn't have Zack!" I exclaimed. "And do you know why?" he shook his head. "I came up with a plan when Zack was born!"

"And what is this plan?" He inquired.

"Go shower and get dressed, you're gonna need it." I told him. He stared at me before he nodded, turned on his heel, and went to get ready. "And don't bring any weapons! That part's taken care of!" He gave me a thumbs up, and continued. After he had gone back into his room, I turned and went into the opposite direction. I took the stairs up to the roof, and I bathed in the light. I had stopped laughing. Reality had set in. I stared at the building that I knew: it was the tallest building in the middle of the city. I took a deep breath, and screamed, "FUUUUUUUUUCK!" I fell to my knees and broke down, but I didn't cry. Then, I felt an arm wrap itself around my shoulders. I followed the arm to Justin's face.

"Common, we have to get ready." I nodded, and he picked me up, and led me inside.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Hannibal was fading in and out.

"Common, King. Wake up." His eyes shot open; he knew that voice.

He shot up, but was taken down by the chains that were holding him down. "What the fuck?" he said as he stared at her. Danica Talos smiled down at him with that terrible smile. "You're dead. I know you're dead."

She smiled bigger. "Technology is a beautiful thing, King." Her impossibly high heels clicked as she came over to him. "We were a beautiful thing."

His eyes started darting around, trying to find out where he was. Then it hit him. "What am I doing here? I thought the government seized this place."

"They did." A man emerged from the shadows. He was tall and blond. His eyes were the palest that Hannibal had ever seen. He had a handsome and innocent face, but his expression made him look like he was going to destroy the world when he got the chance. "And it took a large sum of money to get it back. I trust you like your room."

Hannibal sneered. How this guy knew where the whole Dracula thing went down, he had no idea. "Who the fuck are you?"

He gave a small smile. "The name is Novak Haben. You don't know me but your daughter does. Quite well, in fact."

King's eyes went so cold, that Danica flinched. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER?" He shot up from the floor to go after Novak, but Danica kicked him down.

"Don't you dare touch my boy." She said with the same anger Hannibal had.

"Your 'boy' touched my girl." He spat back.

Danica smiled. "Well, she must've wanted it. Because I hear Novak talking all the time about how much they loved each other."

"You insects can't feel love!" He shouted, and that hit Danica square in the chest. And if Hannibal wasn't mistaken, it hit Novak as well.

"I was once human-" She started.

"Yeah, well you're not now. And he never was." He nodded towards Novak. Danica kicked him in the face, her heel dragging across his cheek and making a gash.

"Don't you ever talk to my son like that again."

Hannibal had slightly bated breath, "Then tell him to leave my daughter alone. If you do, I'll stay willingly, and become...your cabana boy again." Danica smiled evilly as his eyes went distant.

"I was thinking more of sex toy."

Hannibal glared at her. "I will be your willing sex slave forever, if you leave her alone." For no obvious reason, Novak left. Then, Danica got a smile on her face, and she pushed him down onto his ass.

"What's her name, King?" She straddled his lap.

"Who's name?" he played dumb, and that earned him a slap across the face.

"You're daughter's."

"Anita." He said reluctantly. She started to kiss his bare chest, and anything else she could get her whore hands on. Hannibal didn't move, he wouldn't ever give in to her. His heart still belonged to Abby.


	14. Chapter 14

I hung onto Justin as the water from the shower pounded down on us. I had broken down, and was crying. He was soothingly rubbing my back and keeping me close. I owed him so much. He kissed my temple, and held me tighter. After a little bit, I stopped crying, and looked at him. His eyes were red too.

"Thank you." I said.

"That's what partner's are for."

I gave him another hug and got out of the shower. I dried off, and went into my room. I pulled out undergarments from a drawer at the bottom of my closet. After I put those on, I pulled out a plain white tank top from my closet, along with a pair of cargo pants. Then, I put on my Chuck Taylors and Green Lantern belt. I donned on my black leather jacket, and grabbed the bag that was sitting in the back of my closet. I started to grab random clothes from my closet and put them into said bag.

"What are you doing?" Justin's voice came from my doorway.

"Packing. You need to as well. It's part of the master plan." I didn't even look away from my bag.

"What is this 'master plan' of yours?"

"We follow the hatch to Sam's, go to Novak's place, save Hannibal, collect Zack from Sam's and leave." I said as I zipped my bag, and grabbed another from the back of my closet. I started filling that with clothes for Hannibal.

"Leave? Just like that?" It was like he couldn't believe what I had just said.

"Yes. Just like that." I gave him a hard stare as I passed him with Hannibal's bag. I had stalked into Hannibal's old room, and started to put other things in it.

"How can you just leave your home?"

I stopped packing and turned to look at him. "The Honeycomb Hideout was only my home because Zoe was here. When I was eight, I figured that Hannibal was never coming home; so I made a choice: As soon as I got old enough, I would leave. No questions asked. But then, about five years later, Zack came along. And I couldn't leave. But now I can. I have one more thing to do, then I'm gone. If you were wise, you would do the same thing." I finished Dad's bag, threw it over my shoulder, and grabbed my bag from my floor. Then, I started to head down to the weapons wall. Justin was still following me. After a minute, I sharply turned around and yelled at him, "GO PACK YOUR BAG RIGHT NOW!" He raised an eyebrow at my outburst, but left for his room. I took a deep breath, and continued for the wall.

When I got to the wall, I started grabbing different kinds of weapons, and all of the ammo for that particular weapon. After I had put all of the guns into another bag, I looked at the series of UV weapons that I had designed. A couple of the first designs were updates of the Arc, but the others...oh boy the others. The UV Bo was my favorite. All it was, was a metal rod about the size of two and a half fists stacked on top of one another with a subtle blue button on it. When that button was pushed, two beams of UV energy shot out and created a six foot Bo staff. Although it was most dangerous and most unstable, it was the most fun. I packed that, as well as the UV Sword, the UV Shooter (it was basically a gun that shot out burst of UV energy), and the newest and oldest version of the UV Arc.

Then, I quickly went over to Zoe's lab and picked up the silver suitcase that was underneath her desk. Inside it, was five vials of the cure, and three bottles of an advanced version of Daystar. This version will kill anything that holds the vampire gene within 20 miles. Which is why I have to get Hannibal, Zack and myself out as soon as possible. As far as I knew, Zack was just dandy, but I wasn't going to leave him alone. I shook the thoughts out of my head, and headed back up to Justin's room. He was zipping up his bag, and I stood in the door way. He finally looked up at me, and he looked mad. Good, he needed to be mad. He say anything while he brushed past me and went towards Zack's room. I followed him, and opened the hatch when we got there. I took his bag, and he went down first. I started handing him the other bags, and jumped down when he had the bags. The tunnel was huge. We were both able to stand up straight and move around comfortably. "You built this?" Just asked incredulously.

"I was a very bored, and very smart fourteen year old, with a very rich boss." I said as we made our way down the tunnel. "Sam owns a steel mill; I got the materials from there. All the measurements weren't that hard. I just had to make sure two people of six five could fit comfortably next to each other."

He looked up at the lights that went on every ten feet. "You even put in lights?" He was still shocked.

"Like, I said: I was very bored." Oh, crap, I thought as we were walking, he wasn't angry at me anymore. I sighed because I knew I had to get him angry again. I really didn't feel like bringing his sister into this.

"What are we going to do about Zoe? The Hideout?" He asked as we continued our walk. From the sound of cars, we were probably under a street.

"The explosives attached to the bottom of the barge will take care of that." He looked at me like I just told him that Santa Claus wasn't real.

"You're going to blow it up?"

"That's why you packed a bag." Common, please get angry.

"What about this tunnel?"

"It blows up too."

"You mean, you spent your fourteenth year of life, building this, just to blow it up?" I nodded. "How did you know that you would finish this before one of you died?"

"I didn't. I just hoped for the best until it was done." We had finally reached the ladder that led to the back room of Sam's. Just before I opened it, Justin grabbed my shoulders, spun me to him, and kissed me hard on the mouth. I was too shocked to respond before he pulled away.

I just looked at him, and he said with a sad voice. "Just in case something happens, I have to tell you something."

I shook my head. "Don't." I turned away from him, and climbed the stairs. I opened the hatch and climbed up before Justin could say anything.

"Anita!" Sam sounded relieved as I emerged.

"Sam," I gave him a giant hug before Justin came up. I heard him take a deep inhale, and he pulled me back and smiled scandalously. I looked at him sternly. "Don't even start." He quickly wiped the grin off of his face, and helped Justin bring up the rest of the bags. After Sam had set them down on the couch, I asked, "Did Coulter take him?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah, they left a couple hours ago."

"Coulter?" Justin asked.

"An old friend of the Nightstalkers." I explained. "Is everything ready?" I turned back to Sam.

"Yeah, just get ready and push the button."

"You know you can come with us-"

He stopped me. "I'm ready to go." His eyes told me to let him go.

I nodded. "Okay." I then turned away from him, and distributed the weapons between Justin and myself. After we were ready to go, I turned back to Sam and held out my hand. "It was a pleasure working for you, sir."

He shook it. "It was a pleasure having you work for me, girlie." I nodded and he pulled out the remote from his apron pocket. "Give me five minutes after you get there." He then handed it to me. "Coulter will get your stuff in the morning."

"Yes, sir."

"Now get out of here. Lord only knows what the great Hannibal is going through."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Get off of me." Hannibal growled at Danica as she got a little out of control.

"We were just starting to have fun," She whined as she dug her nails into his shoulders.

"I said, 'get off of me'." He pushed her off of him, and she fell onto the concrete floor. She got up and kicked him in the face again.

"Maybe I should have killed you when you woke up. You're not very fun anymore. You used to struggle, scream...beg. What happened King? Did that little slut finally get the best of you? Did she tame you with a child? Come on, King. You can tell me. I won't bite, yet." She purred most of her little 'speech' into his ear.

"I'm just not afraid of you anymore." He said, and that upset her very much.

"You should be, King. And you will be." She gave a terrible smile, and yet it didn't affect him. He just stared at a spot on the wall and ignored her. "KING!" She shrieked to get his attention. But before he even looked at her, the building began to shake, and a distant explosion could be heard.

He smiled. Zoe had told him about the plan, and he knew what was coming next. "What did I tell you, Danica? Instant cavalry."


	15. Chapter 15

I set up the charges on the door, and started the timer. Sam wanted five minutes, he's got five minutes. Now was the perfect time to get him mad.

"Hey Juju." I said the the man next to me. We were sitting a safe distance away from the door.

Justin's eyes tightened as he looked at me. "Excuse me?" Only his sister called him Juju.

"Yeah, Juju. How'd Maria die? I can't really recall."

"Don't." His voice had gotten dangerously low. But this was the only way he'd get mad.

"Oh! Now I remember. It was your dad, right?" I felt terrible inside, but it had to be done.

"Anita, don't." He was going to kill me later, but not now.

"It was when his friends were over, right? Yeah, it was. He wanted her to 'meet' them, and he brought her down to the basement where they were staying. And they started to...take advantage of her, didn't they?"

"Stop."

"And you, hearing her screams, you went down to see what was going on. They found you spying on them, and your dad made you watch, didn't he? He forced you to watch them rape her, didn't he!"

He was shaking with anger now, "Stop it, right now."

Just then, the charges went off, and part of the building exploded. Then, I heard two more explosions, these farther away. I smiled, saved by the charges. "Let's go." I jumped up from my spot and ran into the building with Justin following me. I pulled out the UV Shooter from my holster and leaned flat against a wall, using the smoke as a cover. I closed my eyes and stayed uber quiet, listening for a sudden rustle or breath that wasn't mine nor Justin's. Thats when I heard a hiss, and I opened my eyes and shot in that direction. I saw a body turn into fiery ashes, and I continued on. When we got to a T in the hallway, I said to him, "Justin, go left. I'll go right."

He nodded, and we went our separate directions. I headed up the stairs that followed, and shot at two whores that were coming down. I ran through their screams and ashes and came to a bridge. Four more, piece of cake. I holstered the shooter, pulled out the Bo staff, and pushed that special blue button. And let me tell you, I went all Jedi master on their asses. The stupid vamps came at me one at a time, so I just 'helicoptered' their heads off. It felt so good to be back in the game. After I had shut down the Bo, I looked around for more. But everywhere was empty, which got me confused. I distinctly remember dozens of people just hanging around here. Without a second thought, I ran down the hallway that I knew so well. I counted the doors as I made my way to my old room. When I got to the door, I kicked it several times until it flew off.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" I shouted at Danica who was straddling Hannibal.

She hissed as she got off of him, "And just who the fuck are you?" Hannibal smiled when he saw me.

"Who do you think I am you mother-fucking-cunt-sucker?" He scoffed at my originality.

"You must be Anita." Her voice was filled with venom as she started stalking towards me.

"And you're just ugly enough to be Danica." We both shot daggers into the others' eyes. She took one more step and I pulled out the Shooter and put it in her face. "You caused my father so many years of pain, it's too bad this will only last a second." I pulled the hammer back and got ready to pull the trigger.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Anita." Novak came up from behind me and stepped between me and her. "It wouldn't end well for you."

Hannibal broke his chains like they were paper, and socked Novak across the face. "Get the fuck away from my kid." Then they got into beating each other, which left Danica for me. Excellent.

"You're lucky Danica." I said, putting the Shooter back into its holster. "I'm willing to make this hurt."

She gave a terrible smile, and lifted her leg to kick me in the face, but I grabbed her foot and broke it. She fell to the ground in screams, and stepped next to her, making her look up at me. "For five years, you had him locked up!" I kicked her in the face. "You forced blood down his throat!" I kicked her again. "You would constantly rape him!" I kicked her yet again. She looked up with a bloody nose, swollen eye, and fat lip. She wasn't even trying anymore. Why? I pulled out my silver knife and pulled her by her hair up to my face. "This time, stay dead." I brought the blade across her throat and stared with hard eyes as she writhed into ashes. For the first time, I could hear other things beside my heart beat in my ear. I heard a hiss, and saw Novak gripping Hannibal by the shoulder and going in for a bite. "I don't fucking think so." I pulled out the shooter and shot him in the back of the head. He screamed as he died, and I was breathing heavily. That was more exhilarating than expected.

"Thanks." He said as I helped him up. As soon as he got his balance, I hugged him tightly. He hugged me back. "Oh, I never want to lose you again." He hugged me even tighter.

"You're not going to. Common, we've gotta get Justin." We let go of each other, and headed out. I lead the way across the bridge and down the stairs, when we got to the T, we went straight and almost ran into Justin who was heading our way.

"We gotta go." He said quickly and we darted back towards the entrance. When we got there, there were still no police. I let out a sigh of relief. They must still be distracted with Sam's and the barge. We ran from there until we got far enough away that no one would suspect we did anything. When we got into a more populated crowd, I pulled out my wallet from my back pocket and took one of the twenties I had and went up to a guy about thirty-ish.

"Hey, twenty bucks for your shirt." I showed him and he shrugged and took it off. I handed it to Hannibal, and we continued on our way. I looked over at Justin, and he looked beaten. We made our way in silence to the subway. I got our tickets, and stopped before we got on the train. I ushered the boys onto it, but took out one of the vials of Daystar, and set it off. My last job. I got on the train just as the doors were closing, and sat with the boys. Soon we'll be in Hamburg. Soon we'll start over.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

_Four Months Later_

I stood behind the bar and started to fill up drinks for the newest customers. Sam had a bloody chain of bars, and apparently his will said that I inherit everything of his east of Iowa. Wow, so much for conspicuous.

We had used his fortune to buy a new house which Coulter travels in and out of. Apparently he's too good to stay in one place. Whatever. I took the drinks to table four, and went back behind the bar to the grill which was sizzling with burgers.

Hannibal had started a weapon making business for vampire hunters. He was always good at that sort of stuff. I wonder where I got that gene from. I took the burgers off of the grill and prepared them before taking them to the two men sitting at the bar.

I enrolled Zack into the Hamburg School District, and he should be coming in at any minute. He is so smart, he actually helped Hannibal design the newest versions of UV weapons.

Justin normally goes in and out with Coulter. When he does come home eventually, we normally spend the night with each other. But nothing ever more than that. I really thought that we were going to be together. But never mind that, Zack just came home. "NITA! NITA! NITA!" He shouted as he ran into the bar. He sounded scared.

"What? What's wrong?" I ran to him as soon as I heard him.

"Justin's in the alley! He told me to get you! He's hurt real bad."

"Okay, I'll go get him. Why don't you go downstairs and be with Uncle Hannibal for a little bit." He ran downstairs and I quickly went into the alley by the bar. "Justin? Justin?" I called for him. "Justin where are you?" I was quickly going through the alley.

"Right here." He whispered in my ear. I quickly turned around to face him, and he pulled me into a kiss.

I pulled back from the kiss and said, "Zack said you were hurt."

"He lied." He started going through his pockets.

I then hit him in the arm. "Don't encourage him to lie. He already gets enough inappropriate jokes from Hannibal. I don't need you teaching him to lie."

"I only got him to lie so I could give you this in private." He pulled out a box from his pocket and handed it to me.

I took it cautiously, and opened it. There was a Claddagh ring with an emerald heart in the middle. How he knew King was an Irish name, I have no idea. I looked up at him with a question in my eyes. "Why are you teasing me?"

He shook his head. "I'm not. I'm tired of going from place to place fighting whenever I can. I want to be here with you and Zack. I want to get married. Be with you forever."

I took the ring from the box, and put it on my left hand with the heart facing out. "Nothing is forever. But I'm willing to spend the rest of my life with you." He smiled, and gathered me up in another kiss. After he pulled away, he whispered to me. "Can I tell you now what I was planning on all those days ago?" I nodded. "I love you."

I looked him in the eye and said, "I love you, too."


End file.
